But others believe negotiations still can contain the most lethal weapons, coax India and Pakistan into observing the nuclear test ban and international inspection regimes, and further reduce the stockpiles of the major powers.

"Calling it a regime gave it a sense of being an iron castle, which never existed," said Frank Wisner, a former ambassador to India and Egypt who tried to persuade Russia to cut off aid to Iran's nuclear power program. "But the nonproliferation regimes still establish norms of behavior. They are like traffic laws; people still speed."

THE CURRENT NON-PROLIFERATION REGIME HAS SCORED NUMEROUS ROLLBACKS AND VICTORIES

A nuclear test ban was signed. Brazil and Argentina scrapped their nuclear weapons programs. South Africa announced it had secretly built six nuclear bombs and then dismantled them. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, three newly independent, former Soviet republics gave up their nuclear weapons.